download a greyscale kaleidoscope
a colour scheme created for Kaleidoscope 2.x
from Lloyd Wood (L.Wood@surrey.ac.uk)
MacUser Kaleidoscope contest judge.

requires Kaleidoscope 2.0 or later.

The inspiration for Hello Elgie.

download a greyscale kaleidoscope 2.0.2 (6K, stuffited - yes, that really is six kilobytes and an instant download; the text of this webpage you're reading is bigger...) for Kaleidoscope 2.0 and later.

introduction
a greyscale kaleidoscope is a colour scheme created as a plug-in for the popular Kaleidoscope MacOS human interface munger by Greg Landweber and company. a greyscale kaleidoscope provides the smallest Kaleidoscope scheme that you are likely to see, demanding no unnecessary use of disk space or thrashing of System memory resources.

installation instructions
if you don't already have the Kaleidoscope 2.0 control panel installed in your Macintosh's System folder, download the Kaleidoscope package from your local info-mac mirror or via the Kaleidoscope Way web page mentioned below.

once you have Kaleidoscope installed, you can open the Kaleidoscope control panel and select a greyscale kaleidoscope. or just double-click on a greyscale kaleidoscope to allow the Kaleidoscope extension to weave its peculiar magic.

the Kaleidoscope World
the home of the most recent version of a greyscale kaleidoscope, of The Kaleidoscope Way, or zen and the art of the Kaleidoscope color scheme, and a reasonably complete introduction to the world of Kaleidoscope:

http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/L.Wood/kaleidoscope/

design rationale
be smaller.

design features
  • coaxes as much as possible from the latent capabilities of the Kaleidoscope control panel.
  • faster in use than many other Kaleidoscope 2.x schemes.
  • minimal use of network resources when downloaded.
  • lack of unnecessary redundancy.
  • useful for scheme designers.
  • rapid switching time.
  • small disk footprint.
  • size.

a note on naming
it appears to create a greyscale look.
it's for the Kaleidoscope control panel.

a note on culpability
the good artist knows his influences.
they have helped make him what he has become.

Leo. Ed. Sven. Greg. Arlo.

they made me, and I made this.
I hold them entirely responsible.

feedback
unlike the designs of Aaron, Apple Grayscale and Apple platinum, the design of a greyscale kaleidoscope is not dictated or constrained by Apple in any way whatsoever. in fact, it's entirely dictated and constrained by the design of the Kaleidoscope control panel, and, as a piece of performance artwork requiring Kaleidoscope, its rendering is therefore entirely beyond my control. your comments on and suggested improvements to its appearance should also be sent to support@kaleidoscope.net.

distribution and legal information
a greyscale kaleidoscope is copyright (c) 1998, 1999 Lloyd Wood, all rights reserved.

a greyscale kaleidoscope is freeware, but is not in the public domain.

modification of the contents of the a greyscale kaleidoscope package for redistribution is prohibited. modification of the a greyscale kaleidoscope scheme for redistribution without my express permission is prohibited. you can make your own colour scheme and name it yourself; the Kaleidoscope Way will show you the way towards getting started in colour scheme design.

a greyscale kaleidoscope may be included on CD-ROM, or redistributed by or in any other medium, physical or electronic, without charge, provided that the full a greyscale kaleidoscope package is kept intact and unmodified, with all accompanying files and documentation.

the resources within a greyscale kaleidoscope may be programmatically interpreted in any manner that you see fit, within the limitations detailed above.

suggested use
install. select. shudder.

return with extreme rapidity to the familiar comfort of Amadeus for Kaleidoscope, whose latest version can be obtained from the webpage mentioned above.

if you are creating schemes for Kaleidoscope 2.x, you will find that switching to this scheme just before editing your scheme speeds up the design process. in particular, as accent colours are disabled in a greyscale kaleidoscope, there is no scrollbar thumb confusion in ResEdit.

known issues
Kaleidoscope 2.0 or later is a necessary requirement, as earlier versions of Kaleidoscope are considerably less robust in their internal resource handling.

Scheme Checker may complain about missing resources. this does not indicate a problem with a greyscale kaleidoscope; this results from a lack of familiarity with the flexibility of the Kaleidoscope 2.0 format and the novelty of a greyscale kaleidoscope on Scheme Checker's part. ensure that you are running the latest version of Scheme Checker.

revision history
2.0.2 - added about box URL support for Kaleidoscope 2.2. tidied up splash screen.
2.0.1 - removed unnecessary Colr 128 resource after testing with older versions of Kaleidoscope.
2.0.0 - first release of a greyscale kaleidoscope for Kaleidoscope 2.0, June 1998.


Lloyd Wood (L.Wood@society.surrey.ac.uk)
this page last updated 16 September 1999